Homecoming
by WallyandDick5ever
Summary: After Wally's death Artemis struggles to come to terms and move on. Its not as depressing as it sounds really, I think.


The official statement released to the public was that Wally West had died June 20th in a fiery car crash. Due to the circumstances, his body was never recovered. Everyone who had ever known him attended his funeral, and as they lowered the bodiless coffin into the ground, many tears were shed.

Only the League knew what had truly happened that day. The nonstop rain caused almost everyone to leave sooner or later, until there was but one lone individual.

The black dress she wore made her hair glow bright gold, the wind whipped her hair around her face but she stood as still as a statue. After five minutes, she stiffly walked toward the freshly covered grave. She placed her hand on the headstone and softly whispered, "Please don't be dead... we need you." As she turned away, tears trickled down her face.

By the time Artemis got back to the house, it was pitch black outside. She shook out her umbrella and hung her coat up. She didn't much feel like being alone tonight - that gave her two options. Suit up, or have a girl's night with M'gann. Yeah, there was no way she wanted to do girly stuff tonight, so she suited up and headed out.

At the watchtower, she found Nightwing and Aqualad in a very intense conversation on who would win in a fight: Batman or Superman. Amused, she shook her head. _Boys will be boys. _

"But Superman has laser vision!" Kaldur protested.

"HAVE YOU _SEEN_ Batman's gadgets, I mean _whoa_!" Dick took a step back to emphasize his point.

_All right, let's wrap this up_, Artemis thought to herself. "Batman would win if he had Kryptonite, but if he didn't, Sups would obviously win."

Both boys turned to stare at her, mouths slightly agape. It was Kaldur who spoke first. "We were... not aware you were going to join us on patrol tonight." He hesitated. "Under the circumstances."

She wanted to punch the walking fish in the face, but settled for shrugging instead. "I don't really feel like being inside," she said gruffly. Nightwing nodded knowingly, which made her want to punch him too. "Let's get going then, see if we find any robberies." Now she wanted to punch herself in the face.

This was a bad idea.

It was a quiet night in Gotham, and humming of the city flowed around Artemis as she ran across the rooftops. The closer to the stars she got the better she felt. The cool night air always seemed to free her mind of worry, or any other distractions. She paused momentarily as Kaldur's voice emerged from her comm so that she could hear him better. "There is a robbery in progress on 23rd and 5th street, I advise both of you to meet me there in five minutes."

His orders echoed eerily in her ear for a few second before she responded, "Be there in four." She hopped over the side of the building, sliding down and landing with a soft thud. She started to move toward the opening when suddenly - it disappeared.

Her exit had been blocked by a group of six drunken men. In Artemis's opinion, there wasn't a worse group. The leader of the group was a thickset man in his late 40's and as soon as he spotted her he started cat calling and whistling until his buddies joined in. She gritted her teeth. The costume didn't help much either.

Backing up she looked for pipes she could use to climb up and out, but they were all broken or extremely unsturdy. Deciding that it wasn't worth the risk, she focused her attention back on the gang, trying to gauge their intention. "What have we got here, fellas?" he sneered, motioning around him. "A little kitty cat, all alone in a dark ally." The way he said those last words made her skin crawl.

As they came closer to her, she lowered her stance, preparing for a fight. As soon as the first two cronies got within 5ft of her, she launched herself at them, smacking their heads together with a sickening crunch. She dropkicked the next two men, sending them sprawling, before the biggest man of the group grabbed her in a headlock. She thrashed about, but his grip was too tight. The Blonde that she had kicked came at her aiming for her stomach, and she instinctively curled her legs up and kicked out at him, making him stagger backwards. She kicked the big man that was holding her in the balls, causing him to release his grip.

_Asshole,_ she thought viciously as she broke his nose with a solid punch. He screamed, making her smile inwardly. Using her momentary distraction, someone tackled her from behind and tried to hold her down. Hissing, she punched him in the throat making him sputter, but before she could move three more guys jumped on top of her, holding her down.

"There you go little bitch, in your rightful place," said the leader (who she mentally renamed as Asshole). Roaring, she arched her back, trying in vain to free herself. Asshole shook with laughter as his men struggled to hold her down. "You're not getting away so easy, little devil," he said, stooping down to reach for her mask. She growled and bit his hand hard, clinging as he tried to pull his hand away, letting out a blood curdling scream. He whined for about two minutes before he grew a pair. He strode toward the tiger, pulling a knife out and pressing it hard against her neck. She instantly stilled as it cut through the fabric on her neck and drew blood, if it went too much deeper it could puncture her airways.

The lone streetlamp suddenly blinked out - what a great omen.

"You boys wouldn't hurt a cat now, would you? I would hate to report you to ASPCA," remarked a bored voice.

Artemis inwardly groaned. There was only one person who could be that much of a smartass.

The blade's pressure on her neck lessened, letting forth a new stream of blood. Great, she was going to have to wash this thing like 50 times to get the bloodstains out, _joy_. She arched her back again and kicked her legs up, doing a backwards somersault over the guys holding her arms. They were still holding her arms, so she headbutted one and he crumpled at her feet. She swung her free arm at the other. It came in contact with his jaw, shattering it.

And as usual, Nightwing was flying over his opponents, landing a punch here and there, basically toying with them.

"Stop playing with them!" she shouted, more annoyed than amused. He quickly finished them off in a series of back handspring, kick to the head, back handspring, punch, and a back flip to finish it all off, landing lightly on the biggest man who groaned and fell over.

"And that," the acrobat said with a wide grin, "Is how it's done."


End file.
